Ok, it's been a while since anyone's posted in this thread, so I dunno if I'll even get a reply, but I've been working on this one for a while, and I'm stuck.

I've gotten to the point with the 3 "bands" of data, and I know the encoding for the first group (fairly simple), but the 2nd and 3rd groupings have me baffled. Given how easy the first group was, I feel like I'm probably overthinking the other 2.

If anyone out there still reads these forums, could I get a push in the right direction? Anything would be appreciated

Assuming you're already past the G&M's, you'll have to notice the way the values are grouped. That'll give you a hint as to how to convert them. If you still end up with garbage, trusting your gut and/or experience on decoding will have to tell whether it's useful or useless garbage.

noob question , i read about conversions to find a hidden file........with what tools? convert into what? havent done many things myself, just looked into image in notepad, and found a pdf file name .any first steps to do ?

I was wondering if I'm on the right track. I got a blank file with a particular number of pages. What should be my next step ? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in Advance.

-- Tue Aug 20, 2013 11:32 pm --

I know that this forum is kinda dead, still I'm posting my problem. After some work, I replaced some hex in picture with another hex values. After saving it and opening the file it asks for password. If I give wrong password nothing happens, if I give correct password it enters and I can see the real answer file. But when I try to extract, it says failed in encryption password wrong. Any advice will be thoroughly appreciated.

I think this challenge was one of the hardest challenges I have faced so far.It was basically a multi-layer steganographic image with several encryption layers to go through; very interesting.For those who might be stuck1. Search the image for common files2. Grab that file3. Is the information inside the .*** fle really blank? How can you read all the data to ensure this?4. Pretty common step here, very basic decryption knowledge is needed5. Wow, what's that output? Shouldn't we convert that to something?6. Use a hex editor such as ghex7. Look at the image, what is it? What is it saying?...

Pro tip, don't attempt to bruteforce the file. Unless of course you like wasting time.